Atmospheric Aerosol Distribution in 2016–2017 Over the Eastern European Region Based on the GEOS-Chem Model
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atmosphere Article Atmospheric Aerosol Distribution in 2016–2017 over the Eastern European Region Based on the GEOS-Chem Model Gennadi Milinevsky 1,2,3,* , Natallia Miatselskaya 4, Asen Grytsai 2, Vassyl Danylevsky 5, Andrey Bril 4, Anatoli Chaikovsky 4, Yulia Yukhymchuk 3, Yuke Wang 1, Anatoliy Liptuga 6, Volodymyr Kyslyi 6, Olena Turos 7 and Yuriy Serozhkin 6 1 International Center of Future Science, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China; [email protected] 2 Physics Faculty, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv 01601, Ukraine; [email protected] 3 Department for Atmospheric Optics and Instrumentation, Main Astronomical Observatory, Kyiv 03143, Ukraine; [email protected] 4 Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk 220072, Belarus; [email protected] (N.M.); [email protected] (A.B.); [email protected] (A.C.) 5 Astronomical Observatory, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv 04053, Ukraine; [email protected] 6 V. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv 03028, Ukraine; [email protected] (A.L.); [email protected] (V.K.); [email protected] (Y.S.) 7 Laboratory of Air Quality, Marzeiev Institute for Public Health, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv 02660, Ukraine; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] or [email protected]; Tel.: +38-050-3525498 Received: 21 May 2020; Accepted: 30 June 2020; Published: 7 July 2020 Abstract: The spatial and temporal distributions of atmospheric aerosols have been simulated using the GEOS-Chem model over the sparsely investigated Eastern European region. The spatial distribution of the particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration, mineral dust, black carbon, organic aerosols, sea salt, as well as nitrate, sulfate, and ammonium aerosols during 2016–2017 were considered. The aerosols’ concentration, seasonality and spatial features were determined for the region. Particulate matter (PM2.5) contamination prevails in Poland in late autumn and winter. 3 The monthly mean PM2.5 concentration reached 55 µg m− over the Moscow region in the early 3 spring of both years. The mineral dust concentration varied significantly, reaching 40 µg m− over the southwestern part of Eastern Europe in March 2016. The areas most polluted by black carbon aerosols were the central and southern parts of Poland in the winter. The organic aerosols’ concentration 3 was the largest in March and April, reaching 10 µg m− over East Belarus. The sea salt aerosol concentration increased in the coastal regions in winter due to the wind strength. Mineral dust aerosols in Eastern Europe are mainly composed of dust, partially transported from the Ukrainian steppe and partially from the Saharan Desert. Keywords: aerosols; GEOS-Chem; PM2.5; mineral dust; black carbon; organic aerosol; sea salt aerosol 1. Introduction Studies of aerosols’ spatiotemporal distribution on global and regional scales are critical for climate research and air quality monitoring. The aerosol distribution and properties are determined from observational data obtained by various techniques, such as in situ measurements and ground-based and satellite remote sensing, for the purposes of determining the aerosol load and for radiative transfer Atmosphere 2020, 11, 722; doi:10.3390/atmos11070722 www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere Atmosphere 2020, 11, 722 2 of 17 investigations (see, e.g., [1–3]). The remote sensing datasets are rather sparse in time and space, particularly because of the night and clouds. The ground-based sun-photometer measurements of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) are very accurate but limited in time and space [4,5]. The satellite remote sensing measurements of the AOD have a larger coverage area, but the confidence of the satellite data was estimated as low [2]. The spatiotemporal variability of the aerosols’ concentration in the atmosphere varies with altitude because of the short lifetime of the aerosol particles in the troposphere: from hours to weeks. The content and spatiotemporal distribution of the aerosol particles, their chemical composition and microphysical structure, are defined by the physical conditions in the atmosphere and their seasonal variations [6]. The seasonal variations in the aerosol concentration and properties were detected by many observations over the globe in different conditions (e.g., [7–9]). It was estimated from various observations that the mesoscale variability of the aerosol horizontal distribution for spatial scales is 40–400 km and for temporal scales is 2–48 h [10]. The modeling of the spatial and temporal distributions of the aerosol concentration and properties is a technique that allows for the estimation of the complete pattern of the atmospheric aerosols. These models are also an appropriate tool for climatology studies over large domains and long periods of time. To simulate the spatiotemporal distribution of the aerosols’ concentration and properties, different models are used, which are developed by different national and international institutions. For example, the Goddard Earth Observing System-5 (GEOS-5) atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) is currently in use in the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at a wide range of resolutions for a variety of applications [11,12]. The widely applicable GEOS-Chem software package is a global three-dimensional (3D) model of atmospheric chemistry controlled by assimilated meteorological observations from the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) of the NASA Data Assimilation Office [13,14]. The widely applicable CHIMERE model [15] is dedicated to the study of regional atmospheric pollution events. This model was applied to study the biomass-burning products’ propagation and their influence on solar radiation in the atmosphere caused by intensive wildfires in the central regions of Russia during the summer of 2010 [16,17] and to study the movement of storm dust from the Sahara and biomass-burning smoke from wildfires (Heinold et al. [18]). Additionally, models are widely used to study the particulate matter (PM2.5) distribution in the atmosphere at regional and global scales (e.g., [19–21]). Modeling of the spatiotemporal distribution of the aerosols’ concentration and their properties is particularly important for regions where up-to-date observations are sparse or absent, such as Eastern Europe. The results of the spatiotemporal distribution of the aerosols and their sources over this region using ground-based and satellite observations are discussed in [9,22,23] and simulated in [24,25]. The AOD at 865 nm were used for the analysis of aerosol properties in the atmosphere over Ukraine and adjacent territories in 2003–2011 by Bovchaliuk et al. [22], with a resolution of approximately 18 km 18 km over cloud-free regions. These POLDER/PARASOL data describe the fine-mode aerosols × from the biomass-burning products and different anthropogenic sources [26]. The increased AOD (865 nm) values have usually been observed in April–May and August–September and agree with AERONET data over the Ukraine and Moldova areas and the South of Russia. An increased AOD (865 nm) to 0.2–0.5 was observed in August 2010 due to the intensive wildfires and fire products by the transboundary transport in July–August 2010 [16,27–29]. The seasonal aerosol properties in the Eastern European region were investigated by Milinevsky et al. [9]. The seasonal variations of the aerosol amount and optical features were analyzed using the AERONET sun-photometers data and POLDER satellite measurements. These areas are influenced by the local aerosol pollution sources (traffic, industry) and by the aerosol transport from remote sources (e.g., open steppe areas, mines, and wildfires). The potential influence of air transport on the seasonal variation of aerosols based on the data from the Kyiv and Minsk AERONET sites has been discussed in [9]. The aerosol properties in the atmosphere over Eastern Europe in 2002–2019 have been investigated via MODIS data by Filonchyk et al. [30]. Atmosphere 2020, 11, 722 3 of 17 The global chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem, was used to simulate the spatiotemporal distributions of atmospheric concentrations of specific aerosol types over the Belarus–Ukraine region for 2010–2013 [24,25]. Results of the model simulation were evaluated using data from the Minsk and Kyiv AERONET sites. To provide a correct comparison, the simulated aerosol component concentrations were converted into coarse, fine, and total aerosol column volume concentrations, taking into account the hygroscopic growth of particles. The model-predicted and remotely sensed aerosol volume concentrations are in reasonably good agreement. The main purpose of this paper is to determine typical aerosols and reveal the distinctive features of their spatiotemporal distributions in the atmosphere over Belarus and Ukraine where detailed in situ aerosol observations are not available. We use the GEOS-Chem model to simulate the variation of aerosols’ monthly properties in the atmosphere over the Eastern European region, with a special focus on Belarus and Ukraine. In these countries, the air quality networks are not developed and currently are in the stage of planning and discussion. The aerosol distribution in the near-surface layer below 100 m has been modeled. This layer is important to study the impact of aerosols on air quality. In Section2, the GEOS-Chem model is shortly described, and an example of the